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[{"Amount":8.3800,"CurrencyCode":"GBP","DonationDate":"2016-09-06T21:24:18","DonorDisplayName":"Andreas","DonorLocalAmount":10.0000,"DonorLocalCurrencyCode":"EUR","EstimatedTaxReclaim":0.0000,"ImageUrl":"https://www.justgiving.com/content/images/graphics/icons/avatars/facebook-avatar.gif","Message":"It is great to visit for free such a prestigious museum. It's a small sum of money but donated willingly, for culture and for young people"},{"Amount":20.0000,"CurrencyCode":"GBP","DonationDate":"2016-11-10T19:31:19","DonorDisplayName":"Kate English","DonorLocalAmount":20.0000,"DonorLocalCurrencyCode":"GBP","EstimatedTaxReclaim":5.0000,"ImageUrl":"https://www.justgiving.com/content/images/graphics/icons/avatars/facebook-avatar.gif","Message":"What an amazing institution! This is to say thank you for your daily guided tours and the free activities you run for children."},{"Amount":5.0000,"CurrencyCode":"GBP","DonationDate":"2016-11-17T08:56:35","DonorDisplayName":"Katja Leyendecker","DonorLocalAmount":5.0000,"DonorLocalCurrencyCode":"GBP","EstimatedTaxReclaim":1.2500,"ImageUrl":"http://images.justgiving.com/image/87facb53-ce60-4e05-9c8d-fa830c9c523c.jpg?template=profilesummary","Message":"I had a most wonderful 3 hours in the gallery's 1600s section! Must return!"},{"Amount":2.0000,"CurrencyCode":"GBP","DonationDate":"2016-10-20T16:29:27","DonorDisplayName":"Joshua Beaumont Houghton Boston","DonorLocalAmount":2.0000,"DonorLocalCurrencyCode":"GBP","EstimatedTaxReclaim":0.0000,"ImageUrl":"https://www.justgiving.com/content/images/graphics/icons/avatars/facebook-avatar.gif","Message":"Thank you for being you!"},{"Amount":2.0000,"CurrencyCode":"GBP","DonationDate":"2016-10-25T09:01:14","DonorDisplayName":"Richard Roberts","DonorLocalAmount":2.0000,"DonorLocalCurrencyCode":"GBP","EstimatedTaxReclaim":0.5000,"ImageUrl":"http://images.justgiving.com/image/24d4733d-a317-4e81-8d0c-014c91259172.jpg?template=profilesummary","Message":"I hope this small contribution will allow you to continue your excellent work"},{"Amount":20.0000,"CurrencyCode":"GBP","DonationDate":"2016-11-16T20:57:11","DonorDisplayName":"Irina ","DonorLocalAmount":20.0000,"DonorLocalCurrencyCode":"GBP","EstimatedTaxReclaim":0.0000,"ImageUrl":"https://www.justgiving.com/content/images/graphics/icons/avatars/facebook-avatar.gif","Message":"One of my favourite museums. Hope to visit again."},{"Amount":5.0000,"CurrencyCode":"GBP","DonationDate":"2016-11-22T10:18:24","DonorDisplayName":"","DonorLocalAmount":5.0000,"DonorLocalCurrencyCode":"GBP","EstimatedTaxReclaim":0.0000,"ImageUrl":"https://www.justgiving.com/content/images/graphics/icons/avatars/facebook-avatar.gif","Message":"These beautiful artworks belong to us all. Thank you for being custodians of the national collection"},{"Amount":5.0000,"CurrencyCode":"GBP","DonationDate":"2016-08-19T23:36:01","DonorDisplayName":"Fangbin Liu","DonorLocalAmount":5.0000,"DonorLocalCurrencyCode":"GBP","EstimatedTaxReclaim":0.0000,"ImageUrl":"https://www.justgiving.com/content/images/graphics/icons/avatars/facebook-avatar.gif","Message":"I like to donate because I love this great museum and the great masterpieces kept in it."},{"Amount":10.0000,"CurrencyCode":"GBP","DonationDate":"2016-08-02T04:18:28","DonorDisplayName":"Suzanne Burke","DonorLocalAmount":10.0000,"DonorLocalCurrencyCode":"GBP","EstimatedTaxReclaim":0.0000,"ImageUrl":"https://www.justgiving.com/content/images/graphics/icons/avatars/facebook-avatar.gif","Message":"Excellent online information for my students!"},{"Amount":10.0000,"CurrencyCode":"GBP","DonationDate":"2016-11-15T16:27:55","DonorDisplayName":"Janet Scott","DonorLocalAmount":10.0000,"DonorLocalCurrencyCode":"GBP","EstimatedTaxReclaim":2.5000,"ImageUrl":"https://www.justgiving.com/content/images/graphics/icons/avatars/facebook-avatar.gif","Message":"The wonderful National Gallery deserves all the support it can get."}]

Paintings for storytelling

Many National Gallery paintings are ideal for storytelling as they depict stories from mythology, the Christian faith or history.

Pie Corbett, writer and educationalist, has suggestions to help your class use a painting for storytelling.

Begin by selecting a painting based on a story that you think will appeal. For many children, starting with an image has the advantage of the story immediately beginning to grow in the child's mind. Start by asking the children to respond and explore the painting (see Reading Paintings).

Discuss, develop and dramatise ideas, loitering with the picture. This initial imaginative 'reading' will begin to stir up fragments of stories and possibilities as well as help children become intimate with the painting.

Getting to know the story

Read or tell the story to the children a number of times. Work with the tale, so that the class inhabit the world of the story through a range of creative activities. These should deepen children's appreciation and understanding. You might:

Dramatise parts of the story and perform

Draw a cartoon version or story map. Display this on a long roll of wallpaper – this should use pictograms to show the key events

Discuss aspects of the story that children find curious

Make models, paint and draw scenes

Make masks for characters, use props and dressing-up clothes

Gather artefacts and create a 'story museum' to represent the key scenes

Create story boxes with artefacts from the tale

Use shoe boxes to build mini dioramas depicting key scenes

Enact the story with puppets for other children

Create freeze-frames, role plays and hot-seat characters

Work in role as journalists or TV interviewers

Send characters with problems to agony aunts

Gather quotes and observations to create a large poster about a character

Use speech bubbles to show what characters think at different points in the story

In role, write diary entries, messages and letters as well as newspaper articles about events

Use digital cameras to create mini films of scenes or cartoon versions

Compose music or dances to portray scenes

Design a TV advert for the story

Explore the National Gallery website to discover more about the painting and the story's origins